


Actions Speak Louder than Words

by lanwut



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-04
Updated: 2014-03-04
Packaged: 2018-01-14 12:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1266379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanwut/pseuds/lanwut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a sweet something where Winry applies what she learns about actions speaking louder than words. This takes place between episodes 11 and 15.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Actions Speak Louder than Words

She couldn’t understand it; maybe she simply chose not to, but something drew her to the pretty blonde engineer even long after the Elric boys had left. She just couldn’t leave Winry Rockbell alone. She would show up, much like she did today, after a long day’s honest work and keep the young engineer company well into the night sometimes. Often she would sit and talk to Winry while she worked at her desk, but just as often they would sit in a companionable silence. On the rare occasion Winry wasn’t working with automail they would take a stroll around town, talking and giggling over nothing in particular, hands brushing as they walked, and Paninya would show Winry her favourite places to eat. The places where only locals would know to go, places where the owner would greet her with a grin and a wave and a comment on how they’d seen her around town doing odd jobs and maybe she knew how to fix a such and such or a something or other?

It was too late for that tonight though. Paninya walked into Winry’s room well after dark, rolling her shoulders and rubbing at them fruitlessly.

“You’re later than usual,” Winry remarked from her well-lit desk without looking up from her work.  Paninya smiled.

“My job ran late,” she explained, crossing Winry’s small, spartan room to sit on her neatly made bed. It felt good to finally sit down.

“You sound tired,” the blonde said, smiling absently at the automail before her. Paninya covered a yawn.

“I am,” she replied. “It was hard work today.”

Winry laid her automail down and turned to look at her friend, her blue eyes drinking in Paninya’s appearance, streaks of sweaty dust and wry grin and all.

“Hard work is always sore work for you,” Winry said, crossing her little room to the table in front of the window where there sat a large bowl, a pitcher of water, a cup, and a small towel. She poured water in the cup and offered it to a thankful Paninya. She had scarce lifted the glass to her lips when the pretty blonde sat beside her and she nearly dropped it when Winry laid calloused hands on her shoulders and began to gently knead.

“Is this alright?” she asked uncertainly, her hands faltering as she felt Paninya stiffen.

“Y-yes, it is,” she said hesitantly. Confidence renewed, Winry continued kneading her sore muscles.

“You’re very good at this,” Paninya remarked after a few minutes of silence. She swore she could feel Winry’s wistful smile.

“I studied anatomy books a lot when I was younger. You can’t be a good automail engineer without a solid knowledge of the human body,” she said, giving one last squeeze before letting her hands drop into her lap.

“No, I guess you can’t,” Paninya agreed, rolling her shoulders and turning to look at her friend. Winry stared at her hands and sighed quietly. It wasn’t hard to see where her thoughts had turned. _Can’t be a good doctor, either._ Paninya frowned and reached out to take her friend’s hands in her own.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wishing she could think of something - _anything_ \- to say that would make it easier for her but they both knew that there was nothing that eased the pain of losing parents. Even time could only ease the wounds, it couldn’t heal them.

“You know, at first, I studied those books because I wanted to be just like my parents,” Winry murmured. Paninya rubbed gentle circles on the back of her friend’s hands. Nothing more was said between them, and maybe nothing more needed to be said, especially between them. Once upon a long time ago, she too had dreamed of following in her parents’ footsteps, but that time was gone now, and so it was for Winry. But Winry had found something else to devote herself to, something else to be passionate about, whereas Paninya… hadn’t. Her grip tightened a bit and she frowned. Instead she had turned to petty thievery. What would her parents have thought of that? Now more than ever she was thankful for the inspiration Winry had given her to take up an honest life.

 

Another late night a few weeks later found Winry at her desk again, hunched over a particularly delicate piece of automail when Paninya walked in.

“Winry-” she began.

“Oh!” the engineer exclaimed with a harsh jump. She turned and shot Paninya a weak glare. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“I was just saying hello,” she said with a grin, hands up in surrender.

“I was so focused I didn’t hear you come in,” Winry admitted with a sheepish grin.

“I could tell,” Paninya replied with a laugh. “I thought I was being pretty loud, but I guess I wasn’t loud enough.”

She was going to go perch herself in her usual spot on Winry’s bed when the blonde engineer groaned softly and rolled her stiff shoulders before stretching her hands into the air. Paninya gathered her courage and seized the moment.

“Here, let me help,” she murmured as her hands came to rest on the blonde’s shoulders. She felt Winry tense up for a moment before she relaxed. “I mean, I’m not as good as you are, human anatomy expert that you are, but-”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet; you don’t know if it’s going to help or not,” Paninya said with a wry grin. Winry laughed softly and turned her head so she could see her face in profile.

“More often than not it’s the thought that counts,” Winry murmured. “Lieutenant Colonel Hughes said actions speak louder than words sometimes.” Paninya felt her cheeks get hot and watched the corners of Winry’s lips curl into a smile.

“I- I hope my actions tell you how much I care for you,” she said quietly. One of Winry’s hands moved to rest on tops of hers and stayed there.

“Between you visiting me so often, spending so much time with me, and helping me in all the ways you do, your actions speak plenty loud enough,” Winry said and Paninya watched as her fair cheeks turned as red as her own had to be.

“I’m glad you like me as much as I like you,” the blonde said, and before she could think better of it, Winry took the hand she was holding and kissed it lightly. Paninya’s breath hitched in her chest and her face burned.

“That’s- I- thank you,” she spluttered.

“I told the Lieutenant Colonel that while actions speak louder than words, sometimes it’s just really nice to hear something said.”

 

 


End file.
